Truck Cruise & Singspiration

Volga City Truck Cruise (VCTC)
The last weekend in August (yes, I'm aware that that was forever ago!) was the Volga City Truck Cruise. We'd never seen or been to a truck cruise before, so it was an interesting and educational experience!

There were lines and lines of trucks parked by the road. I've never seen so many trucks in all my life!

At its height, the VCTC brought over 800 trucks and 6000 people to our little town (which on any other day of the year has about 200 people)! I haven't heard what the stats were from this year's event, but I know it took a big hit in 2014 which was the first year they didn't allow alcohol in order to make the event more family-friendly, so this year was at least an improvement from the previous year.

Family friendly, indeed! Josiah loved the inflatable games and obstacle courses!!!

"You mean I'm ALLOWED to hit someone in here? SIGN ME UP!!!" 

Inflatable slide - what fun!

The truck cruise had several events, including a tire burnout competition, a diesel smoke competition, a truck pull competition, and the actual truck cruise.

Tire burnout competition (I think)

Truck Pull: Who will win?

All of the funds from the VCTC went to support the restore of the Volga City Opera House which was destroyed in the flood of 1999. That is the reason the VCTC was originally started seven years ago, and this year was the first year it was restored enough to hold an event inside: As the evening of the truck cruise drew to a close, a concert was held inside the opera house.

Being restored little by little

Concert

One of the current elders in our church is very involved with the organization of the VCTC, so usually people from our church volunteer to help out in the food stands. This year not as much help was needed since the event was a little smaller than in previous years, but I (Ronae) still enjoyed the opportunity to volunteer for a couple of hours; it afforded me a great opportunity to get to know more people from our community, as well as to see people again that we have met before. All in all, the truck cruise was a great way for the kids to have a little out-of-the-ordinary fun, and a great way to connect with and help out our community!


Singspiration
Every month that has a fifth Sunday (four times a year), Calvary Bible Church gets together with our Village Missions "neighbors" 25 miles away in Stanley, Iowa, at Stanley Union Church, where Phil and Val Rownd are serving as Village Missionaries. "Singspiration" is an opportunity for our congregations to come together to encourage one another, share fellowship and different talents that God has given different members, and praise the Lord together. We were able to attend our first Singspiration in August, and our next event will be the last Sunday in November, held here at Calvary in Volga.

A child from Stanley shares one of his favorite songs, singing Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

What a blessing to have another VM church so close to us! Here is a video VM published that talks a little bit about the ministry in Stanley:

Little by little I'm trying to get the blog caught up, but I'm afraid that's all I have time for at the moment.

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On Tuesday (10/20), Chris will be going to Grace College for their annual missions conference to share about Village Missions along with another VM pastor from Ohio; they finish the conference on Friday. The kids and I will be going with him and while he stays on campus, we'll stay in Fort Wayne. If anyone wants to try to get together, let me know and we'll try to work something out! Our schedule is filling up fast, but we'd love to see anyone we can! :)